I just found out that rifles are illegal in Britain and Britain has one of the lowest rates of gun homicides in the world. I knew Japan didn't have any, but Britain?
Wrong. Single shot, Bolt action, Martini action, Lever action, and Revolver rifles are legal in any calibre. Pump action rifles (quite rare) are only legal in .22 rimfire, and semi & fully automatic rifles are not allowed (to clarify, the UK legal definition of a fully automatic weapon is anything which is capable of firing 2 or more rounds with one trigger pull).
Britain will have a similar percentage of murder and violent crime as the US, but the crimes will be committed with different weapons e.g. knives.
If people want to kill each other, no law can stop that. Just because most guns are not allowed, people will:
a) acquire prohibited guns illegally. b) use guns that are permitted e.g. bolt action, air guns, shotguns. c) use alternative weapons e.g. knives, swords, big sticks.
âIt can not even be said that the Government has ever shown any disposition to suppress crime, but only to safeguard its own monopoly of crime.â
It's just a cultural thing, the vast majority of Brits feel uncomfortable near guns, hence they don't want them.
Anyway guns are not a panacea, -like everything else- in some particular situations and locations are very useful, whereas in others are ineffective or even troublesome.
Different cultures breed different laws. I don't recall the British being particularly firearm savvy at any point in history, while for most of history Americans have been shooting things from a young age.
Brits don't like guns even a quarter as much as Americans do, on a general scale.
